Town Square

Children murdered in Connecticut grade school

Original post made
by maguro_01, Mountain View,
on Dec 14, 2012

Earlier today there was a story from China that 22 children in a grade school were wounded by a nut with a big knife. The story mentioned that there were a number of such attacks in 2010. Google [Knife attack at Chinese school wounds 22 children] without the brackets.

Now the death toll in Connecticut is at least 27 mostly children in a grade school who were murdered by a nut with 4 guns and body armor. One difference here was access to high tech firearms and plenty of ammunition. Google [LIVE UPDATES: Newtown, CT School Shooting] without the brackets.

This weaponry allows a nut who might be dealt conventionally into a monster that requires paramilitary units to deal with. We also end up with a country with security and lockdowns not compatible with normal civil life in the America we believe in.

If the second amendment does enable this to happen then it's past time to amend the second amendment. Part of the change from years ago is the increasing affordability and availability of high rate of fire military weapons. We read that there is a new generation of these forthcoming and there is no reason why such formidable weapons should exist outside the military at all.

Perhaps we are too gridlocked to banish the institutionalized corruption of our Pay-To-Play political system in Washington. Money prevents restricting money.

But we can do this, NRA or not.

Comments (16)

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Posted by Gary
a resident of Downtown North
on Dec 14, 2012 at 12:38 pm

Bless the memories of the children murdered today, along with the other 30 Americans killed by guns today, tomorrow, yesterday, every day, every week, every month, every year.

If now is not the time to rationally discuss curbing the availability of assault weapons, when is?

The Fox/NRA network mocked the sports broadcaster who asked that question last week; will they do the same this week? One thinks they will not even mention his name after today as it shows how absurd their argument, their mockery, is.

Did we learn nothing from Columbine? From Gabby Giffords? From James Brady?

One just hopes these massacres abate. One certainly hopes they never occur around here.

One wonders: what kind of thinking does it take for a person to equate another gun massacre with an imagined nut in a truck? The kind of thinking that will prevent one from looking at the pictures of the victims out of fear that their position doesn't withstand any rational scrutiny?

"May god bless the memory of the victims, and, in the words of scripture, 'heal the broken hearted, and bind up their wounds.'"

Newtown, CT was my hometown. It is normally a very quiet, peaceful place. I did not attend that particular elementary school but our town's high school is nearby.

Something like this can happen anywhere and anytime.

I started teaching Karate in Newtown over 28 years ago and now teach Karate and self-defense classes at several locations in this area. Last year, after the attempted abductions at a couple of our local schools, I started offering to teach introductory self-defense to all our school kids for FREE. Only one accepted the offer and they were apparently very glad they did. I am again offering to teach these classes, for no charge. And I would be more than happy to work with the teachers and other staff as well. I am ready to donate hundreds of hours of my time for this. It will be worth it if it helps even just one kid avoid getting hurt.

The latest from CNN at this time is that at least 30 people total were murdered, another 10 wounded. Of the murder victims, 20 were young children.

It is seldom reported, but having lived six years in Japan, I read about many horrible murders, just not committed with guns. Knives, swords, bows and arrows, poison, toxic gases, etc were used. If a murderer is intent, gun control will not stop him, he will choose some other weapon.

Posted by Gary
a resident of Downtown North
on Dec 15, 2012 at 9:48 am

Limit the number of shells to three per clip; pump or bolt action only, no semi-auto.

Prohibition would probably inhibit the overall death count, but it would also violate the 2nd Ammendment, and it would guarantee the old tautology: "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws would have guns"...then innocent people would have no protection against the bad guys.

If the nutcases used molatov cocktails, instead of guns, would there be talk of banning gasoline? Remember, the biggest school masacre ever n the U.S. was in 1927 (Michigan), and it was done with a bomb. Norway has very strict gun laws, but there is always a way to get them, if the determined shooter wants to do a masacre (as happend last year).

Posted by Cathy
a resident of Crescent Park
on Dec 15, 2012 at 11:02 am

Dear Gary
my first response to your post was to just want to write 'f*** you' over and over and over. However, I am a bit calmer now so I will try to be a bit more persuasive in my arguments. So your main argument against gun control seems to be that it would violate your rights? Regardless of whether it is a good idea or not, it is your constitutional right to own as many and as lethal weapons as you wish. Seriously? That's the best you got? Yes, Norway's strict gun laws did not prevent their recent massacre but has there been anything since? Not that I have heard of. After the Dunblane school massacre in the UK in the mid 80s guns were virtually outlawed - how many gun incidents have there been since? I remember a couple of mass shootings that made the news and every so often someone resurrects an old wartime weapon for no good but that is it in over 20 years. Yes there is knife crime but it is much more difficult to commit mass murder with a knife than a gun. Here, though, here, the kids and teachers killed yesterday have not been dead for 24 hours and there is news of a shooting in a hospital in Alabama, another one in Las Vegas - it just goes on and on - it is so sickening!
You know, I get that we are not going to be able to ban guns in this country - really don't like it but I get it. However, why does anyone need multiple guns? Why does anyone need military grade weapons? Why? Because it is their constitutional right to do so - and they don't care how many kindergarteners have to die to protect their rights. There has to be a sensible way of regulating the ownership and use of firearms - has to be - and if it means trampling on a poorly written and ambiguous part of the constitution, so be it.

Posted by Gary
a resident of Downtown North
on Dec 15, 2012 at 2:58 pm

Dear Cathy,

If you would bother to actually read my opinion about guns in this country, you would find that I am in favor of relatively resrictive laws. Try again, and try to be patient.

If you are concerned about murdered innocent children, as I am, you might want to consider the massive slaughter of the unborn children, in this country, under the cover of "choice". The screams, from all the tortures inside the womb are silent to all who refuse to listen to them. I do consider all of that torture, yet I still come down on the side of womens' choice. Same for gun rights. It is a cost-benefit/rights decision, in the end.

Posted by Mensch
a resident of Menlo Park
on Dec 17, 2012 at 9:14 pmMensch is a registered user.

This topic is so sad. I'm alarmed by the violent video game culture we have allowed to flourish and desensitize ourselves and our children to "the shooter". Not long ago, we used different terms such as "murderer" and "assassin" to describe the sick people who commit these crimes in the real world. Lots of people are shooters, but only murderers and assassins use guns to steal innocent lives and break hearts. Let's do our best to use appropriate terms to distinguish disturbing but legal video game behavior from vicious, cowardly real-world homicide.
When we use words like "shooter" with its diluted, fantasy world meaning, we unwittingly support the purveyors and players of these horrible games.
Nobody will ever persuade me that American civilians need automatic weapons in their homes and cars.